Pacific Region RCSD Assessment Worksheet
Use this form to add or update a climate assessment to Piko (Worsheet Version June 2012)
Acronym
Name/Title
Regional Decline of Coral Cover in the Indo-Pacific: Timing, Extent, and Subregional Comparisons
Lead Agencies, Institutions and Organizations
UNC-CH
Contacts(names, emails)
John Bruno, Professor of Biology, jbruno@unc.edu
Partnering Agencies, Institutions, and Organizations
Assessment Type
Climate Science
Needs And Capabilities
Needs
Capacity
Capabilities
Risk and Vulnerability or Problem-focused
Area of Applicability
International and National
National and Regional
Regional/Local or Problem-focused
Focus Area
Fresh Water Resources and Drought
Coastal Inundation/Sea Level Rise, Extreme Weather, and Community Resilience
Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems
Region/Locale
Central North Pacific
State of Hawaii
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Pacific Remote Islands
Western North Pacific
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)
Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)
Guam
Republic of Palau
Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI)
Other Western North Pacific
South Pacific
American Samoa
Australia
Cook Islands
Fiji
French Polynesia
Kiribati
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Other South Pacific
Pacific Basin
Global
Focus Area
Completed
Ongoing
Planned
Proposed
Description
A number of factors have recently caused mass coral mortality events in all of the world's tropical oceans. However, little is known about the timing, rate or spatial variability of the loss of reef-building corals, especially in the Indo-Pacific, which contains 75% of the world's coral reefs. This study provides the first regional scale and long-term analysis of coral cover in the Indo-Pacific. Our results indicate that the loss of coral cover began earlier than assumed and that coral cover is currently very similar across the Indo-Pacific, suggesting that coral decline is a general global phenomenon.
Url
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.000071
Keywords
Regional/Local or Problem-focused Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems South Pacific Completed Risk and Vulnerability or Problem-focused National and Regional
Worksheet
Assessments-RDCCIP.doc